Stability and image quality issues in the new versions on MacBook Air M1
 

Hello everyone,

For quite some time, I've been using the DisplayLink Manager 1.10.3 as the most stable version (for me), but I decided to bring up the issues that I have with the newer versions, as they don't seem to be known or mentioned somewhere to be resolved.

My device is a MacBook Air M1 (16 GB, macOS Sequoia 15.6.1) with a Lenovo ThinkPad Hybrid USB-C with USB-A Dock (DUD9011D1). I'm connecting two external displays via HDMI and using them in 1080p 60Hz mode, in addition to the integrated display. But I also had the same issues in the older macOS versions.

I was performing the following tests:

• switching (3-finger swipe gesture) between a windowed browser with mostly light colours and a full-screen application with multicoloured text on a mostly grey background.
• scrolling a multicoloured text on the grey background.

During the testing, each version change was performed with the cleanup using the DisplayLink End-User Cleaner.

• 1.10.3 - the latest stable version - smooth and without glitches, but it crashes when the storage memory is low (without any message like in new versions), and screen sharing controls are not visible on external displays.
• 1.11.0 - smooth, but depending on the colours on the screen (the most noticeable with grey colours), the image quality changes (colour palette becomes more “flat”) and compression artefacts appear near the text (most noticeable there), applies only to the active display (colour palette doesn’t change on the second display).
• 1.12.0 - the same issue as in 1.11.0
• 1.12.1 - the same issue as in 1.11.0
• 1.12.2 - the same as in 1.11.0
• 1.12.3 - the same as in 1.11.0
• 1.12.4 - the same as in 1.11.0
• 13.0.0 - the issue with colour shifting and compression artefacts has been resolved, but new issues appeared - both displays suddenly became slightly darker, during which the refresh rate drops significantly (feels laggy). After ~3-4 seconds, it recovers. Another issue is that the monitor menu closes almost immediately and becomes unusable - likely due to the new brightness and contrast controls.
• 13.1.0 - the same as in 13.0.0

Below is an example of the compression artefacts that were visible in versions 1.11.0 - 1.12.4.

Without issues:
https://i.ibb.co/Pzr1NKbN/IMAGE-2025-09-14-18-49-59.jpg

With issues:
https://i.ibb.co/9khKfdbj/IMAGE-2025-09-14-18-50-04.jpg

Hopefully, the provided information helps to get to the bottom of the issues. Let me know if there is anything else that I could provide that would help with the issue resolution.

Thank you!

If you have not already done so, I would suggest reporting these issues to DisplayLink directly by following the process outlined here --> https://support.displaylink.com/know...to-displaylink

Thank you for your help. I followed the instructions on the page and submitted a report with the issues that I have on the latest (13.1.0) version.

Thanks aLLeXUs for the feedback and detailed report!

You’ll be getting a direct response from our support team soon, but I also wanted to share a quick update here for everyone’s benefit:

Monitor menu (OSD) disappearing:
This is a known issue. Unfortunately, there’s no fix yet, but we’re working on it and will share updates once it’s resolved.

Screen dimming when Switching full-screen windows:
This should be fixed in the next release, which is currently planned for next week.

Cheers,
Szymon

Hi aLLeXUs,

DisplayLinkManager 14.0 is out:
https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...ownloads/macos

Please check if the screen dimming problem is addressed. Thanks for your feedback!

Regards,
Szymon

Hi Szymon,

The issue with the screen dimming has been resolved.
Thank you very much!

Regards,
aLLeXUs